The Dual Purpose of Education
The purpose of education is to inspire young minds to think critically and deeply while fostering citizenship and character. Education in the United States is a right (Mann 111) not a privilege and with this right comes the intense desire for students to achieve and surpass their potential. Educators hold a key role in maintaining high expectations for learners throughout their time in the educational system. It is imperative that teachers understand that they are the backbone of the education our children receive and that they are the direct connection to students day in and day out. Their role is vital in ensuring that the education our children receive is not futile but full of purpose.
With these high expectation comes a great deal of responsibility. Teachers must be able to understand that students are not just there to gain knowledge and menial facts but are there to learn soft skills such as cooperation, respect, integrity, collaboration and so on. As Dewey’s theory states, schools must take a great deal of care to ensure that they care for the whole child and not just the intellectual side of them (Dewey 175). They must be able to see students as more than just pupils but as individuals with feelings, needs, problems, and strengths. Teachers must ensure that they foster social and integral skills to create well-rounded, productive, respectable members of society which would in turn create a better, more progressive country (Jefferson 87).
Danielle Gay, a second grade teacher in a rural school in the upstate of South Carolina, understands the importance of integration of well-being, meeting needs, as well as teaching educational content. When asked about how she runs her classroom she states,
“My students come to me with a vast array of needs ranging from starvation to ADD, from dying parents to reading levels that rival high school seniors. These differences create a large challenge each and every day in my room. My first concern when my children walk in the door each day is not what math will be taught or what book will be read but are my children fed? Do my children feel loved, valued, and safe? I work very hard to create a positive rapport with each and every one of my students to ensure that they understand failure and mistakes are a part of the learning process and to understand that I care very deeply about each and every one of them. Then, the learning begins. I make sure to differentiate all of my lessons to challenge my higher thinkers and to cater to my lower-level thinkers. I challenge them daily with open-ended problems and group discussions that have no answer. I believe that through my actions I can help create citizens that are on the path to become critically thinking, contributing members of society.”
Ms. Gay’s practices have proven results that show she is able to take her kids from where they are and boost them to new levels no matter where they started thus proving she must be on to something here!
Dewey, John. Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. New York: Macmillan, 1916. Print.
Mann, Horace. Twelfth Annual Report on Education (1848). Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1891. Print.
Jefferson, Thomas. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Princeton, NJ: Princeton U Pr., 1950. Print.
Gay, Danielle. Personal interview. 13 May 2016.
